Absorption of gases



Mamba), 945. w. c. JONES ET AL ABSORPTION OF GASES Filed March 11, 1942 ABS ORB ER.

2 Sheets-Sheetl SOLVENT March 20, 1945. JONES ET AL 2,372,085

ABSORPTION 0F GASES Filed March 11, 1942 w 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 253,905 I [6 ri s ans INLE 02:257-

9 A zzfzziii OLEFINS L4 ABSORBER.

STEIPPEQ STEAM INLET GAS INLET I V COOLER f Patented Mar. 20, 1945 ABSORPTION OF GASES William C. Jones and Charles .T. Shewell, Baytown, Tex., assignors to Standard Oil Development Company, a corporation of Delaware Application March 11, 1942, Serial No. 434,202

1 Claim.

This invention isconcerned with the concentration of components of gaseous hydrocarbon mixtures. More'particularly the invention relates to the removal and concentration of normally gaseous or readily volatilized olefins from their mixtures with other hydrocarbons.

In cracking, dehydrogenation and other similar reactions involving thermal or catalytic treatment of hydrocarbon fractions or petroleum derivatives, there are usually formed as intermediate or principal products, compounds of unsaturated structure. These compounds belonging to the homologous series of which acetylene, allene and ethylene are representatives, find wide application and use in the synthesis of numerous organic compounds. However, in order that the unsaturated hydrocarbons may achieve their greatest utility, it is necessary that they be uncontaminated with other hydrocarbons with which they are usually associated.

.Typical of the products obtained from olefinic hydrocarbons are: synthetic. rubbers, aviation fuels and blending agents, alcohols, ethers, ke-

- tones, acetic acid, polybutylenes, and many by azeotropic distillation. This involves the introduction of a compound of widely dissimilar characteristics. such as sulfurdioxide or aceticume of water, 5-50% phenol, and 5-50% acetic acid is suitable for extracting oleflns from parafllns. It is preferred, however, to employ a solvent which comprises about 50% by volume of water, 26% phenol, and 25% acetic acid.

It is therefore an object of our invention to provide a process whereby .normally gaseous or readily volatilized oleflns are selectively removed from their mixtures with paraifins.

. Another object of our invention is to concentrate olefins so that they are more readily usable in processes requiring oleflns substantially uncontaminated with parafflns.

A still further-object of our invention is to provide a solvent which absorbs oleflns preferentially' from mixtures of normally gaseous or readily volatilized olefins and paraflins;

In general, our invention comprises contacting a gaseous hydrocarbon fraction containing oleflns with a solvent of the type described at temperatures between about 40 F. and 120 F. and at pressures between atmospheric and 100 pounds per square inch. While these temperatures and pressures represent conditions found suitable for absorbing oleflns from paraflins, it is to be understood that they are not critical and it is not intended to limit the invention to these particular temperatures and pressures.

After the oleflns have been absorbed in the solvent, the resulting extract is stripped of olefins by application .of heat and the stripped sol- 1 vent is recycled to contact additional quantities acid, with the olefin-containing hydrocarbons into suitable fractionating-equipment and .carefully controlling the distillation .to attain a'prodnot of the desired purity.

However,.we have now found that if an olefincontaining gaseous hydrocarbon fraction is ab- More specifically, We dis of gaseous feed. Since there is a wide spread between the boiling-point of the highest boiling normally gaseous olefin, for example one of the amylenes, and the solvent which is the subject of our invention, little dimculty is encountered in separating thesolvent and absorbed olefins. However, since some acetic acid and/or phenol may be distilled out of the solvent with the olefins, it may be desirable to wash the oleflnic gas with water or an aqueous alkaline solution to remove traces of acidic bodies therefrom.

Inorder to more completely and adequately two arrangements of apparatus elements illustrating embodiments of our invention.

Figure 1 represents a single stage countercur rent absorption system in which the incomin gas is contacted with the solvent in an absorption tower.

Figure 2 represents a two-stage countercurrent absorption process in which the residue gas from the first absorber isrecontacted with solvent in a second absorber.

Similar reference characters refer to similar parts throughout the two views.

Referring now to Figure 1, a hydrocarbon gas containing olefins is introduced through line i into absorber 2 which may be a tower packed with any suitable material such as ceramic packins, Wire screening, bubble cap trays or any other suitable means for securing intimate contact between gases and liquid. The gas introduced into absorber 2 flows upwardly therein and contacts a solvent, preferably comprising water, phenol, and acetic acid introduced into absorber 2 through line 3. As the solvent flows downwardly, it becomes progressively enriched with oleiins, and the hydrocarbon gases flowing upwardly become progressively leaner in olefins. The gas substantially depleted of its olefin content is then removed from the system through line 4 and is disposed of or further handled as may be desired. The oleiin-=enriched solvent is withdrawn from absorber 2 by means of line and is pumped by pump 6 to stripper I where olefins are removed from the solvent by application of heat or vacuum or by a combination of the two means. When it is desired to remove oleflns by heating the enriched solvent, steam may be injected into the bottom of stripper I through heating coil 8, and the temperature of the solvent is elevated thereby to between about 120 to 212 F. whereby olefins are driven oil. The predominantly oleflnic gas is removed from stripper 1 through line 9 and is subsequently collected and employed as a feed stock in any process requiring a, concentrated gaseous olefin feed.

The stripped solvent is discharged from stripper 1 by means of line In and pump H and after cooling in cooler 23 is recycled to'absorber 2 through line 3. In some instances, it may be necessary to change the solvent in absorber 2 or to add make-up solvent or constituents of the solvent. In these cases, make-up may be introduced into the system by opening valve l2 and pumping solvent from tank l3 by means of pump In the modification of our invention which we will describe with reference to Figure 2, an oleflncontaining feed gas is introduced by means of line I into absorber 2 where countercurrent contact is made between the gas and solvent. The solvent is introduced into absorber 2 near the top through line 3 and flows downwardly contacting the up-fiowing gas. As the solvent contacts the oleflnic gas, it becomes progressively saturated with olefins and the gas becomes progressively stripped of its oleflnic constituents. However, to achieve substantially complete removal of olefins from the gas in one stage might require an absorber of a size which would be commercially impractical. Therefore, in this embodiment the residue gas from absorber 2 which still contains oleflnic hydrocarbons is introduced by means of line 4 into absorber 85 where the gas again, contacts quantities of solvent.

It is to be understood that an number of absorbers may be used. It is ,also understood that in some instances it may be desirable and preferable to operate absorbers 2 and IS in parallel rather than in series. Provision is therefore asraocs made to inject fresh reed gas into line 6 by means of branch line so, valve it being opened to allow passage therethrough. When absorbers 2 and i5 operate in parallel, valve Iii in line d is closed ofi and valve it in line it is opened for release oi residue gas. 1

However, when operating in series, residue gas from absorber 2 is discharged into absorber is through line 5 where contact between the gas and solvent is made. Solvent is introduced in absorber is through line at as will be further described.

Enriched solvent from absorber 2 is withdrawn therefrom by line 5 and after mixing with rich solvent withdrawn from absorber through line all, the combined stream is discharged by pump 6 through line 22 into stripper l where the oleiins are distilled from th solvent. As described with reference to Figure 1, heat is applied to stripper I by means of steam injected through coil 8. Olefins are distilled ed and removed from the stripper l by means of line 9. In some cases, it will be necessary to subject the oleflns removed from the stripper to a water or aqueous alkaline wash to remove any acidic material which may be present. After suitable treatment as described the' oIeflns may be used as desired.

The stripped solvent is withdrawn from stripper i by line "i, is cooled to a temperature between about 40 F. to 120 F. in cooler 23 and a portion of the cooled solvent is pumped by pump 24 through line 2| to absorber l5 where the residue gas from absorber 2 is further treated. The second portion of the solvent is recycled to absorber 2 by means of line 25, pump H, and line 3.

When'neededor when the solvent has to be replenished or changed, valve I! in line 3 is opened and fresh solvent or constituents thereof are pumped to absorber 2 from storage tank I! by means of pump ll.

In conducting our invention as described herein, it is necessary to construct all equipment, in which the solvent or its vapors comes into contact,'of corrosion resisting material, since our preferred solvent corrodes ordinary steel equipment rapidly. Thus the absorbers 2 and I5 and stripper I and all auxiliary lines and pumps may be built of special corrosion resisting alloys. As an alternative, absorber 2, l5, and stripper 1 may be constructed of ceramic material or may be glass lined.

In order to illustrate our invention further, a

' number of absorption experiments were conducted in, which the amount of the several components comprising our preferred solvent was varied. These absorption experiments were performed .in glass laboratory absorption equipment. 100 milliliter samples of a propylene-propane fraction having an unsaturated hydrocarbon content of 19.2 mol percent were contacted with 10 milliliter portions of the solvents described in the data table. The amount of total gas absorbed by each solvent was noted, and the residue gas was collected and analyzed for olefins by absorption in 98% strength H2804.

Equilibrium conditions were established in all cases employing an absorption temperature of F. and a pressure of 1 atmosphere.

Since the amount of unsaturated hydrocarbons in both the feed and residue gases was determined by analysis, the mol fraction of both the saturates and unsaturates dissolved in the solvent was easily established. However, the total amount of gas absorbed is not a true index of the worth of a given solvent. Consideration must be given to the selectivity of the solvent in ones-- tion for the oleflns. The following equation Where has therefore been developed (basedon Henry's law) to illustrate the phenomena of selectivity:

=selectivity of absorption Y1=mol fraction of paraflins in residue gas X1=mol fraction of parafllns in solvent Yz=mol fraction of olefins in residue gas Xz=mol fraction of oleflns in solvent alpha index of all the various combinations of v the three components tested. While the total amount of hydrocarbondissolved in this particular solvent was only 4.5 milliliters, it must be remembered that only milliliters oi solve s a ventais compared with that of our preferred solvent in Table II.

Solvent phenol, 25% acetic It is evident from a studyoi the data in Table II that our preferred solvent mixture is not only superior in selectivity toward oleflns than any of I the other solvents tested but that it is vastly nt 25 superior in selectivity toward oleflnsthan either Table I Concentration in solvent Concentration in residue gas 7 Pro lone Propane Propylene Propane Solvent Dy Yux, war, a

' M01. M01. M01. M01.

0. c. inc. 0. c. Inc. C. c. the. G. c. i'rec.

(X1) (X1) (Ya) (Yr) 1007 glacial acetic acid 0. 4 0022 x. 6 00017 0. 8 154 5d. 2 840 70. 0 137. 0 1. 0d 75%;icetic acid, 25% water 3. 6 00067 5. 0 (D001 15. 0 172 75. 8 828 256. 0 854. 0 3. 34 60%aceticacid, ,water 1.6 .000275 2.0 .000342 17.6 .183 78.8 .817 665.0 2,300.0 3.00 50%acstioacid,50%water. 1.2 -.000l87 0.0 .00014 18.0 .185 70.0 .815 900.0 5,820.0 5.88 7 Beetle acid 50% phenol 8. 0 00237 23. 7 .00732 11. 2 165 57. 1 .835 60. 0 114- 0 1. 64 W ter. P enol, it! odd 4. 0 00102 9. .0 00228 15. 2 175 71.8 .825 171. 3 $2. 0 2. ll 3670 water. SSW/t P eno 33W; acetic acid... 3.2 .00072 4.8 .00101 16.0 .114 no .820 242.0 772.0 a. 10 50%water,25%phenol,25%weticecid 2.8 ..00055 1.7 00032 10.4 .172 70.0 .828 312.0 2,585.0 8.27

were employed. Furthermore. calculations show that the concentration of oleflns in the gas dissolved in the solvent was 62.3% against 19.2%

in the feed gas. Whereas, a gashaving an olefincontent of 19.2% would be unsuitable in processes requiring a higher olefin feed concentration, a feed gas containing 62.3% oleflns would find wide utility. By employing pressure, recycling of residue gas. and; additional absorption stages, or any of the well known expcdients for obtaining improved contact between diflerent phases, the concentration or the 'oleflns in the gases dissolved in the solvent may be raised to a figure approaching unity.

In order to show that our preferred. solvent mixture is more selective toward oleflns than compounds typical of the solvents well known in the art, absorption experiments similar to those described and illustrated in'conlunction with Table! were conducted with eighteen different reagents which have shown-utility as solvents to": various hydrocarbon compounds.

The alpha index or each-o! on claims ..1-

acetic acid or phenol which are components with water or our. preferred solvent.

While we have illustrated our invention with relation. to absorption and concentration of propylene from its mixtures with propane, it is to be understood that we do not wish to limit ourselves in any respect to the particular em bodiments or examples, presented. For example, acetylene-or its homologues, butadiene. ethyl en'e, butylenes or pentylenesand thelikemay be,

recovered in a pure state from their mixtures with other hydrocarbons in accordance with our invention.

. 'We claim: an A. method .10: droearbon gas containing the some in admixture with saturated hydrocarbons. which comprises scrubbing said gas with-a solvent essentially consisting of acetic acid. phenol and water, containing about ot water, about 25% of phenol acetic acid. WILLIAM c. JONES. 0848138 "1. BHEWELL.

and about 25% 01' 

